Russian Security Services Bust ISIL Cell in Moscow Region

Russia’s intelligence agency on Monday said it had arrested members of an ISIL group cell which was preparing terror attacks.

The FSB said in a statement it had “thwarted the illegal activities of… the international terrorist organization” ISIL on September 30, by detaining all members of a cell in the Moscow region.

It said they were all from Muslim-majority republics in the Caucasus but took orders from “foreign emissaries” pledging allegiance to ISIL.

An FSB representative later told Russian media that two of the men arrested were brothers from Russia’s Republic of Dagestan, in the north Caucasus.

“One is 22 years old, the other is 19,” the FSB employee said.

The group was planning significant terror acts in Russia, including in densely populated places and on public transport, the statement said, without specifying the number held.

Two home-made explosives as well as guns and grenades were found during raids on their homes.

Russian officials regularly claim foiling terror plots. In August, the FSB said it had arrested four ISIL members who were planning suicide attacks in Moscow shopping malls.

In July, security services said they arrested seven Central Asian migrants accused of preparing attacks in St Petersburg, where 15 were killed in a metro bombing in April claimed by a little known group called the Imam Shamil Battalion.